Purchasing Whiteness

"Ann Twinam's long anticipated study of royal dispensations from the "defect" of African descent (gracias al sacar) proves well worth the wait . . . At over four hundred pages, this book will not find a place in the undergraduate curriculum, but it should be essential reading for graduate students and scholars of both Latin America and the history of race more widely. Twinam guides readers with clear chapter summaries, while also enticing them to keep turning pages to follow her detective-like investigations of both personal dramas and political debates."—Sarah C. Chambers, American Historical Review

"Beginning with a two-part historiographic and methodological introduction, Twinam guides readers through concepts of social mobility in the Spanish Indies from the arrival of African slaves until the Bourbon reforms . . . This book is an impressive methodological study for uncovering the voices of nonwhite colonial society . . . Recommended."—S.B. Opperman, CHOICE

"This is a massive, hefty piece of work, both in terms of length and depth of scholarship. I admit that I was rather daunted by its prospect, but once I started reading I was soon fascinated by the topic and the way it is presented. It'll win prizes. It's important."—Matthew Restall, Pennsylvania State University

"Quite simply, the author knows more about this subject than anyone else ever has. Her research is thorough, original, and imaginative. Above all, she demonstrates the larger relevance of what might first seem a narrow topic. These whitening petitions are valuable because they throw a sharp light on long-term, largely submerged processes of casta mobility. Some of the most interesting passages describe her detective work in tracking down whitening cases and uncovering the life stories of the petitioners."—R. Douglas Cope, Brown University

"Purchasing Whiteness is quite simply, a magisterial tour de force that will be received as a significant contribution to the historiography of race in colonial Latin America. It exemplifies the very best of historical research. Twinam's groundbreaking methodology that connected previously unknown gracias al sacar documents amounting to some thousands of pages underlines the increasing importance of digital resources to historical research...Twinam writes with a striking immediacy, in a language that is accessible to undergraduates and advanced scholars alike, and I suspect that Purchasing Whiteness will rightfully become a core textbook on the complicated yet fascinating history of race in colonial Spanish America."—Cecily Jones, H-Caribbean

"Scholars of colonial Latin America will certainly appreciate the extensive archival work of this book. Ann Twinam demonstrates the making of gracias al sacar, or the purchase of whitening, in colonial Spanish America, specifically through its institutionalization, which makes her effort not just noteworthy but critical to advancing the field....Twinam's attention to detail, and her insistence on the correct versus incorrect interpretation of royal rulings, reveals an attention to the official narrative and a monumental institutional study, or a history of a policy."—Rachel Sarah O'Toole, Hispanic American Historical Review

"This meticulously researched, elegantly written book examines casta mobility....Twinam is the first to have described why the gracias al sacar appeared and what it meant. In accomplishing this herculean task, she did much more than analyze the whitening case histories, by telling the story of countless other castas who informally passed and struggled to provide a better life for their descendants. For anyone interested in understanding this process throughout the Americas, Purchasing Whiteness is essential reading."—David M. Stark, New West Indian Guide